The Loop reports that US Senator Al Franken, who took Locationgate public, posted a list of witnesses for the next week’s Congressional hearing on privacy issues and location data gathering practices by Google and Apple. On the list is Bud Tribble, Apple’s vice president of software technology. Jobs and Tribble go way back. He’s been with Jobs since they built the original Macintosh and could be considered his right-hand man.
Tribble, an expert in software design and object-oriented programming, is credited with helping design the Mac operating system and user interface, serving as the manager of the original Macintosh software development team. He then followed Jobs to NeXT, Inc., where he was one of the founders acting as vice president of software development.
He also spent some time at Sun Microsystems where he was charged with guiding e-commerce software R&D as chief technology officer for the Sun-Netscape Alliance. He was also vice president of engineering at Eazel where he headed development of next-gen user interfaces and Internet services for Linux.
The engineer earned a BA degree in Physics at the University of California, San Diego and an MD and PhD in Biophysics and Physiology at the University of Washington, Seattle. Bud Tribble will represent the Cupertino firm at the hearings scheduled to take place next Tuesday, May 10 at 10:00am.
Per Senator Franken’s office, the Congressional hearing will be entitled “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.
Another photo of Bud Tribble (standing next to Steve Jobs) taken at Andy Hertzfeld’s 40th birthday party in 1993.
